US military planes drop thousands of meals in Gaza in an emergency humanitarian operation

US military C-130 cargo planes dropped palletized food over Gaza on Saturday in the opening phase of emergency humanitarian assistance authorized by President Joe Biden after more than 100 Palestinians who rose to take goods from a humanitarian convoy were were killed during a chaotic encounter. with Israeli troops.

Three Air Forces Central planes dropped 66 packages containing approximately 38,000 meals into Gaza at 8:30 a.m. EST (3:30 p.m. local time). The bundles were deposited in southwest Gaza, on beaches along the territory’s Mediterranean coast, a U.S. official said. The drop was coordinated with the Royal Jordanian Air Force, which said it carried out two food drops on Saturday in northern Gaza and has conducted several rounds in recent months.

“The combined operation included U.S. Air Force and RJAF C-130 aircraft and respective Army soldiers who specialized in the aerial delivery of supplies, constructed packages and ensured the safe delivery of food aid,” the U.S. Central Command said in a post on “X”, formerly known as Twitter.

The launch is expected to be the first of many, US Central Command said.

President Joe Biden on Friday announced that the United States will begin dropping food to starving Gazans after at least 115 Palestinians were killed and hundreds more wounded in Thursday’s attack as they searched for aid, the Health Ministry in ruled Gaza said from Hamas.

Hundreds of people rushed onto about 30 trucks bringing aid to the north before dawn. The Palestinians said nearby Israeli troops fired into the crowd. Israel said it fired warning shots into the crowd and insisted many of the dead were trampled underfoot.

White House national security spokesman John Kirby said Friday that the airdrops were planned to safely deliver emergency humanitarian assistance to people on the ground. The United States believes airdrops will help address the dire situation in Gaza, but they are not a substitute for trucks, which can transport much more aid more effectively, although Thursday’s events also showed the risks associated with land transportation.

Kirby said airdrops have an advantage over trucks because planes can move aid to a particular location very quickly. But in terms of volume, the launches will be “a supplement, not a replacement, for moving things over land.”

The C-130 is widely used to deliver aid to remote locations due to its ability to land in austere environments.

A C-130 can airlift up to 42,000 pounds of cargo, and its crews know how to stage the cargo, which can sometimes include vehicles, on huge pallets that can be safely dropped from the back of the plane.

Air Force cargo handlers secure packages onto pallets with a release-equipped net in the back of a C-130, then crews release them with a parachute when the plane reaches the scheduled delivery zone.

The Air Force’s C-130 has been used in past years to drop humanitarian aid in Afghanistan, Iraq, Haiti and other locations, and the airframe is used in an annual multinational “Operation Christmas Drop” that drops pallets of toys from above, supplies, non-perishables food and fishing supplies in remote locations in the Federated States of Micronesia and the Republic of Palau.

Since the war began on October 7, Israel has banned the entry of food, water, medicine and other supplies, except for a trickle of aid entering the south from Egypt at the Rafah crossing and the Israeli Kerem crossing Shalom.

The United Nations says a quarter of Gaza’s 2.3 million people are at risk of starvation. Humanitarian officials have said airdrops are not an efficient means of distributing aid and are a measure of last resort.